by Tobi Grim
Lupa took a drink of her beer. No, she wasn’t sure she was powerful enough to do what Hammer was suggesting. “Maybe… I guess we’ll see. It’s a pretty big ask. May need Gift to help me. This guy sounds… fucked. If his spells are anything to go by, I think it’s going to be fucking hell.”
“Findin’ anythin’ more out about your blood magick?”
Lupa bit her lip, trying to think… “Kinda… I dunno if it’s actually been helpful though. It’s just raised more questions. We found… dead bodies. And with Hawk’s dad… fuck. It just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Both Hawk and I have been healing way quicker than normal… and… I just dunno.”
Sledge let his eyes wander over her body, stopping as they reached her arm… the one she had clawed open, that didn’t even show a trace of the gouges or the stitches. “Thinkin’ it be a good thing?”
“Aint thinking so, Sledge, anything that messes with one’s… body, can’t be good. We aren’t allowed to use magick for our own benefit, it’s against Rule. Doing so can be… dangerous I guess.”
“But you aint bein’ the one that makin’ it, so that bein’ ok?”
“I have no idea. We don’t even know how it’s happened. I mean… we must have come in contact with something that has done it I guess. Or someone…”
“You both touchin’ the spearhead.”
Lupa snapped her eyes to Sledge. He was right, how had she not fucking clicked? Could that be why they wanted it back? Was it… was there more to it that she had thought? Could touching it make people heal super fucking fast? But why…
“Shit… you noticed anything? You touched it too…”
Sledge shrugged, lighting a smoke and leaning back, “I always been healin’ fast… aint everyone who bein’ magickal?”
“And wolfblood,” Lupa responded, tucking her legs under her to face Sledge, “Have you noticed you heal faster than regular magickal people?”
“Aint never noticin’…” Sledge cocked his head, “Thinkin’ maybe I do. Aint really knowin’ what’s normal.”
“Ok… so… as far as I know, a wound like the one that was on my stomach would take a couple of weeks for a human to heal, maybe a week for both witches and wolfbloods… but it healed within a few days for me. Even though I tore the stitches twice…” Lupa felt her cheeks heat up a little, the second time had been when her and Sledge…
“And that aint normal for you?”
“No… the second one across my chest is completely gone now too, not even a mark on my skin. That’s definitely not fucking normal for me.”
Sledge shifted his bulk uncomfortably, “Thinkin’ it aint got to do with… you changin’? I dun always been healin’ in a few days. Less it real bad.”
“Wouldn’t being cut open be considered being fucking bad?”
Sledge shrugged, “Aint knowin’. I dun been stabbed a few times before, that takin’ about a week to heal…”
“Exactly, it should have taken a week if... wait, Hammer said one of the symbols mean ‘eternal beauty’… that could mean… physical appearance going to what you looked like when you touched the thing… so like… not cut up or bruised or whatever. Fuck. And blood magick can be used to alter what you look like… So if…”
Lupa was struggling, the Pop was wearing off, and her mind was slowing down. Her head was cloudy, and she felt like she was about to pass out. It meant something. She knew it was there… knew she couldn’t grasp it though. Dammit, maybe if she just closed her eyes….
✽ ✽ ✽
Lupa woke up to Sledge looking down at her. She was in his bed, but… he wasn’t, he was just sitting on the edge. “Thinkin’ you may wanna answer your phone. It been ringin’ three times now, aint wanna wake you but thinkin’ it might be important…”
Lupa sat up, where was her phone? She felt the vibrating in her jeans pocket. Right, she didn’t have her fucking bag with her when she and Dameon had gone out. She shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out the screaming phone, Dameon was calling and it was already two pm.
“Shit, sorry, Hawk, you ok?”
“Yeah,” Dameon whispered, “But that chick from last night… she’s sleeping in my bed…”
“Ok…” Lupa frowned.
“You home?”
“Nah, what’s up?”
“Wanna come… get rid of her for me? Thinking we should probably head out to the Corpore’s house too…”
Lupa laughed, regretting it instantly as her head pounded, “Yeah ok. I’ll be there soon.”
“Thanks.”
Lupa shut her phone and got out of the bed, pulling her shoes on that were sitting next to it. She wandered out to the lounge to see Sledge standing near the door, his long hair tied back and his eyes looking… guarded.
“You needin’ a lift home? Or aint you wantin’ Hawk to know…”
Shit. “That’d be great thanks. Sorry for being… passing out earlier.”
Sledge opened the door to the alleyway for her, Lupa followed him out to his car, “Aint needin’ to worry. You lookin’ like you needin’ some sleep.” He opened the car door for her then crossed around and climbed in, “All that talkin’ makin’ anymore sense for you now?”
Lupa rubbed her throbbing head. Not fucking really. Her whole mind hurt too much. “Maybe… maybe later. Hawk and I are going to go back to Blackmoars and see if we can piece this shit together a bit more. I’m sure the answer is right there… but… I guess we’ll see.”
“That why Hawk be callin’ so much?”
Lupa laughed in spite of her aching head, “Actually he wants me to get rid of a one night stand chick in his place first.”
Sledge gave her a quick sideways glance, “Aint thinkin’ he… aint it hard to have shit like that when you bonded with someone?”
“One night stands? Not really…” Lupa watched him. “Or do you mean… relationships?”
Sledge grunted then caught himself, “Yeah…”
“It can be hard… a lot of bonded couples end up together. I think that’s the way The Organization wants it to work… keeps the magickal bloodlines stronger. But it doesn’t always work that way. And… I guess it can be hard for people to have relationships outside of their bonded other half… people always get jealous and shit. Guess that’s why a lot of people who wanna go that way end up leaving The Organization…” Lupa couldn’t stop her mind from thinking about Grey and what he’d… fuck him.
“You ever havin’ that problem when you with the other Protector?” Sledge pulled the car over in front of her apartment building, carefully keeping his eyes away from hers.
“No… I don’t really do… relationships.”
Sledge nodded and got out, crossing around the front to open her door. She felt like a bitch, but she didn’t really know why. Why was Sledge asking her all this shit for anyway? Couldn’t they just be… ah whatever.
“Thinkin’ maybe I comin’ round later? When you dun back from the ‘Moars?”
“Sure,” Lupa smiled up at his blank face, “We didn’t really get to chat this morning…”
Sledge nodded, “A’right, you callin’ me when it bein’ ok?”
“You betcha.”
Lupa crossed the road and gave him a wave as she opened her door and started up the stairs. She went to open her door then remembered Dameon was down the hall and started walking down. Dameon opened the door before she even had a chance to knock.
“She’s in my fucking shower now,” Dameon said, his face looking completely free of bruises, his nose without even the slightest hint of a break…
“Don’t you know you always get them to leave before you go to sleep?” Lupa asked, amused by Dameon’s discomfort.
“Fuck you, I never had people over at…” he ran his thumb along his unshaven face.
Lupa smiled softly at him. Yeah, he probably didn’t want to go down that fucking road right now. “Ok, ok, what do you want me to do? Just kick her out? Isn’t that going to seem… weird?”
“Shit… I dunno…”
“Ok, fine… let’s pretend I’m your girlfriend and hope she didn’t notice me at the club, I’ll get all annoyed or angry at her and that should make her leave…”
Dameon nodded and went over to his fridge, pulling out two beers and opening them, sliding one over the bench for her. “How you feeling now?” he asked, looking at her over his beer.
“Like shit. This should help a little though… you?” she drank half her beer in one mouthful, grateful for the furry feeling leaving her mouth.
“Like an idiot. I shouldn’t have…”
The pretty girl stood in Dameon’s bedroom doorway, looking from one to the other. “Who’s she?” The girl asked, her high pitched voice making Lupa’s whole body cringe.
“Who the fuck are you?” Lupa asked, putting on her best outraged look and placing her hands on her hips. “And what the fuck are you doing in my boyfriend’s place?”
“Umm… I… think I should go…” the girl looked uncertainly to Dameon.
“Think you fucking should, slut!”
The girl’s eyes widened in horror and she quickly scampered towards to door, throwing Dameon a dirty look before slamming it behind her.
“Thanks, Lupa.” Dameon looked relived. “I’m going to grab a shower… then you wanna head out to Blackmoars?”
“Yep.” Lupa grinned at him and finished her beer.
Chapter seventeen
“Preservation and intervention…”
Lupa glanced at Dameon uncertainly as she knocked on the Corpore’s door for the third time. They waited, but still there was no answer. Lupa looked around them and tried the door, it was unlocked and opened easily…
“Shit…”
Dameon peered at her with worried eyes, “What?”
“I can smell blood… we better go in…”
They walked through the door and glanced around. Nothing looked out of place… but Lupa could smell the blood thick in the air… fuck. She walked slowly down the hall, Dameon with his knife out staying close to her. She pushed open the door that the smell seemed to be coming from, gagging as she saw Mr and Mrs Corpore’s bodies wrecked on their bed. Their eyes wide and unseeing, their bodies torn open and blood staining the bed and floors.
“Fuck.” Lupa stepped back, putting the sleeve of her red hoodie over her face, “Not good… we better check if the others…”
Dameon nodded and opened the other doors, looking in and then moving onto the next before turning and shaking his head, “None of the girls are here…”
“Shit… we better call… Clean-up. And head down to the Jay’s place.”
Dameon and Lupa left, hopping into his van as Lupa called the Clean-up offices. Shit, she would have to call Slasher too… fuck it. She would call her later. Besides, Clean-up would probably inform Slasher of what they were doing.
Dameon sped down the Jay’s driveway, they jumped out and half ran to the door, knocking loudly. They waited, they could hear the dog barking but no one came to answer their knocks. Lupa turned the knob, did no one out here lock their fucking door? They went in, the smell of blood again. Lupa felt her empty stomach turning. Fuck fuck fuck.
Dameon stepped in front of her and checked the rooms, finding the master bedroom where the smell was suffocating. Mr and Mrs Jay appeared much the same as the Corpore’s had, mouths gaping open in horror… and there was no sign of the teenagers. Shit fuck shit.
“Better give Clean-up a call back… I have a feeling…” Dameon looked at her, his eyes dark.
“Shit, Dameon… what the fuck is going on here?”
“I dunno, Red, but… fuck. Do we check the other houses?”
Lupa didn’t want to. Not a chance in hell. These images were already going to fuck with her… could she really cope with more? Especially the Matthew’s place… she swallowed hard, walking out the front door before the thoughts could make their way into her mind.
“I’ll check them,” Dameon said softy, putting an arm around her shoulders.
“No, it’s ok… I can’t leave it up to you.”
They climbed into his van and went down to the Matthew’s place, Lupa feeling her stomach tightening hard as they pulled up out the front of their farm house. Dameon watched her carefully as he knocked on the door. Nothing. Lupa could feel the tears threatening to well up in her eyes. Not the kids. Please not the fucking kids…
Dameon opened the door, putting his hand out to stop Lupa from following him. “No, I’ll check this one. Just stay here…” he didn’t wait for a reply, just walked inside and started opening doors. “It’s ok… well, it’s not ok but… the kids aren’t here.” Lupa sighed in relief. She liked Noah and Sophia, but the thought of someone killing children… she couldn’t think about it. “Shit!”
Lupa ran in, finding Dameon in the kitchen. The four children were sitting in front of the fridge pulling random shit out. “Oh fuck…” what were they going to do with them, had they already seen their grandparents… and why had they been spared? Lupa cleared her throat and knelt down in front of the children who were staring at them warily. “Hey, guys, are you all ok?”
The four kids nodded silently, looking from one to the other. “Is Grandma and Grandpa awake now?”
Lupa struggled to keep her face composed. “Um, not really. Do you know if there is any… family we can call?” The children all shook their heads. Fuck. Lupa stood up and pulled her phone out of her bag again.
“Doug speaking, how can I help you?”
“Hey, Doug, its Little Red again… you’re going to have to call the crew and get them to check every house in Blackmoars.”
“Fuck, serious?”
“Yeah… we can do it if you need but… there’s small children here…”
“Nah, I’ll let them know. Bring the kids in, they don’t need to see anymore.”
Lupa hung up and looked at the children, “Hey, you wanna come into the city with us?”
The children cheered and ran for the front door, Dameon and Lupa exchanging worried looks. This was fucking bad. If the whole town was dead… except the kids… except the… thirteen teenagers. Fuck. Fuck shit fuck.
“Dameon…” Lupa looked to the kids sitting in the back of his van as he pulled out of the driveway, “There’s thirteen teenagers all up…”
“Fuck! Didn’t Hammer say something…?”
“Yeah. Shit. We have to find them… do you think they might be at the Scott’s place?”
“We can stop in there before we go back?”
Lupa nodded to Dameon as he turned away from the city. This wasn’t good. What were these kids fucking doing? None of them were magickal except two, and even then they barely had much in them… unless they were working with someone else? What the fuck was going on?!
✽ ✽ ✽
Dameon drove down the driveway this time, pulling up out the front of the two storey house. It looked no more inviting in the evening light… they climbed out and told the kids to wait inside the van, surprisingly not getting any objections from them.
Lupa opened the door, Dameon walking a head of her as they climbed the stairs. They found nothing. Absolutely nothing, the bodies and the blood weren’t in the end room anymore. Nothing was. Not a single fucking trace of what they’d seen the night before. This was getting fucking strange…
“What now?” Dameon asked, looking as confused as she did.
“I… don’t fucking know… come on, let’s head back. Hey, I was thinking… that spearhead we touched must have made us heal quicker,” Lupa hopped into Dameon’s van and they turned around, “and I think… that symbol to do with ‘eternal beauty’ might mean something… like… maybe someone is trying to hide something of themselves? Or like… look like someone or something different?”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“I haven’t got that far yet… but… maybe it’s not actually making us heal quickly, but making us look like what we did when we touched it. So… if… someone made it when they wer
e younger… maybe they still look like it because of the spell…”
“So they are killing people to look younger? That’s fucked.”
“I don’t know if that’s what it is, it was just an idea. It has to be more than that… but like, that’s a general example.”
Dameon nodded, pushing his hair back from his face. “Either way, there’s a lot of fucking corpses…”
“What’s a fucking corpses?”
Lupa and Dameon startled, the oldest of the young children leaning over Lupa’s seat. “Um… a bad thing. Don’t repeat that. Sit down you might get hurt.” Lupa gave Dameon a ‘whoopsies’ look and turned her gaze to the rapidly passing countryside.
What the fuck was going on… what were these teenagers up to? They wouldn’t be able to take power from the earth like Hammer had said thirteen witches could, but maybe there was something… could they be in league with a witch who had enough power to do something close to that? And why kill all the adults… they obviously hadn’t taken any of their blood. Shit.
✽ ✽ ✽
Dameon pulled his van up out the front of headquarters, Lupa’s head was really banging now with the kids having gotten restless about half way back. She couldn’t wait to get away from them. They herded the running and screaming children towards the Clean-up entrance down the side of HQ.
The front desk man looked at them with his eyes wide, “You didn’t say there was four of them…”
“You didn’t fucking ask,” Lupa shot back, “You have somewhere for them to go?”
Doug looked nervously at the kids who were climbing on the waiting chairs, “No… but we’ll find somewhere… The guys called me about twenty minutes ago, so far every house they have checked has been…” he glanced over to the kids again.
“Got it,” Lupa responded, “We gotta go see if Slasher is around, can I leave them here?”
“Yeah… ok,” Doug looked like he wanted desperately to say no.
Lupa and Dameon said goodbye to the children and crossed around to the main entrance of the building in the growing gloom, walking down the hallway towards the offices. Lupa wished she could take another Pop, but knew she would have to wait for that… shit, she probably shouldn’t take another one at all. At least, not for a while.